


Danger

by minntastical



Series: Overwatch Collection [7]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, EXTREMELY FREEFORM, F/M, Japan, Overwatch - Freeform, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, do people like long fics, is that good, jesse is a poor little thing, long fic, mission-based, no mchanzo either, no shimada bros sorry, not canon, pls control yourselves, reaper theory, repeating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 05:51:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9979229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minntastical/pseuds/minntastical
Summary: In which you explore more of Jesse's background and find out what in the hell Talon and Deadlock are doing in a hideout on a sulfurous mountain in Japan.





	

**Author's Note:**

> You can pair this one up with Scratches, but it's optional and there is no order required. Enjoy.

When you first met Jesse, he was a merely a teen obsessed with looking cool and being an adult that he clearly wasn't ready to be. Him wearing the stupid belt buckle was enough evidence for what you just said.

You had stared from the opposite side of the glass window of the interrogation room, at a rather tall scrawny boy with long chestnut locks and a chin covered with stubble.

Your first impression of him was that he didn't eat well, which you confirmed months later after he actually had proper meals.

"A majority of the team, thinks you should get sent to the gallows," Gabriel spoke rather coldly to the boy you know he actually looks quite fondly upon. You know Gabriel is reminded of his younger self when he looks at Jesse. Young, dumb, courageous, brave and cocky.

"Only me and that woman you just met, want you breathing."

Jesse's gaze was unfocused, in fact he looked rather indifferent to his current situation. Your interest in the cowboy spiked. Perhaps he  _did_ want to die?

"I'm offering you a chance to join us. Prove your worth."

Jesse's head jerked up at the last word, his mouth curling into a sick smile, "ma worth?"

Gabriel looked taken aback, "show us, show  _me_ , what you can do. If I say you're in, everybody will listen."

"What's there to do here?". Your eyes were focused on the scrawny kid chained to the chair he was sitting on. He spooked you, the way his eyes came alive suddenly. This kid was not like the others.

"We fight the Omnics, and we also fight terrorist organisations like Talon on ocassions," Gabriel became more guarded now.

"Fightin?" Jesse repeated. Gabriel frowned before answering back with a slow drawn out 'yes'.

You watched with bated breath. Jesse was looking for trouble. Why?

"I'm in," he said. And you let out a long sigh.

* * *

Fan the Hammer, he called it.

Deadeye, he was called.

His accuracy was astounding and sharpshooting amazing. In his first round at target practice, the cowboy wasted no time in showing off what he could do. He sank six consecutive shots from his so-called Peacekeeper into the metal human-shaped target. At the heart.

Gabriel was impressed. Hell,  _you_ were impressed. A teen who could shoot better than you with no proper training whatsoever.

Gabriel officially signed him in after that, to everyone else's objection. Angela was doubtful of where Jesse's loyalty would lie, which you couldn't ascertain yourself. You could only hope that Overwatch could be his new home.

After three months, he went from scrawny starving kid to a healthy and rather muscular young adult. His unkempt locks of hair were trimmed, face shaved and body washed daily. The only thing bothering you was that he continued his cowboy craze.

"You do know that you have fresh,  _untouched_ , sets of Overwatch uniform in your wardrobe right?" you brought it up one day. He was hopping around on the pendulum, training his balance and agility.

"Don't wanna use 'em," he panted.

"Why?" you asked, before chiding him for wrong footwork.

"They'll get dirty, might get spoiled, even."

You frowned, "you can wash them afterwards, or get a new set."

Jesse paused, toes gripping the wooden stumps tightly to steady himself. "First time I was ever given clothes, even if it's just uniforms," he said casually.  _Too_ casually.

You stayed silent.

* * *

The relationship he had built with you and Gabriel resembled a family, and you were glad that it did because you wanted to give Jesse another chance at life and love.

Gabriel was a father figure to Jesse, in the wrong ways you would like to admit. Teaching him how to handle other guns besides his Peacekeeper, how to roll out of the way when someone attacked, make use of stun bombs, give him wisdom of the battlefield only a veteran could.

You were with Gabriel, everyone knew that. So naturally if Gabriel was Jesse's father figure, you figured you'd be the mom friend at least.

"I'm gonna call ya, ma sister," Jesse announced somewhat proudly. Gabriel choked, you gawked and Jesse shrugged, "what?".

"Fuck you! I'm not going to be the sister of some cowboy fanatic!"

"Why can't ya look at it as bein' the sister of Deadeye?" Jesse frowned.

"Because you dress like a fucking _idiot_ ," Gabriel cackled, "even _I'm_  embarrassed to be your Commander."

Jesse started to fake-cry.

* * *

"I already briefed Jesse," Gabriel said as he walked over to the chair opposite you. He threw the thick clear file onto the table before sinking comfortably into the black cushioned seat.

"Where to?" you asked, excited at the prospect of a new mission as well as going with Jesse. You wanted to see him in  _real_ action.

"Japan. Tokyo, um, somewhere outside the main area...I can't..." Gabriel stumbled over the next word. You stretched out your hand to receive the file and Gabriel passed it in defeat. The black word glared at you.

"Hakone," you tried, accent a little funky. Gabriel mumbled an 'oh', "I thought it was just ha-cone." You choked.

"The area you're supposed to specifically investigate is known as Owakudani in Hakone. Transport, lodging and funds are provided as always. Special thing is that, if you're lucky, you'll get to catch Mount Fuji in all its glory." Your eyes lit up and Gabriel chuckled at your reaction, "same bloody reaction as that boy."

"But anyway, besides that you'll get to see the sulfur mountain thing as well.  Bad news is," he paused, "your targets might be all over the place and there will be civilians to deal with too."

You groaned loudly, leaning back against the chair that you were seated on. Civilians! Tourists! What a burden. This job was never going to be easy.

"You're setting off in two days," Gabriel announced, snatching back the file from your hands. You nodded in reply and was just about to get up when Gabriel pulled you back down.

"Not done," he said quietly. His sudden change in tone alerted you and you promptly sank back down to your seat.

"I need to warn you about Jesse," Gabriel stared at you, "I don't think he has much experience with planes so that's one. Besides that, he... In the event, there's an actual gunfight or whatever fight, he might...get carried away."

"What are you talking about?" you pressed. What about your little brother?

"He's been in Deadlock way longer than any of us think. He's young, and the shit Deadlock got involved in might have twisted him. Watch him."

Twisted Jesse?

"I'll keep tabs," you said in the end and Gabriel sighed in relief. He waved you off, dismissed, and you moved.

Just before you pulled the door open, Gabriel yanked you back into a rather aggressive kiss.

"I'm not going this time," he murmurred, licking his lips, "stay safe." You nodded a little dreamily before taking your leave.

* * *

"Oh god," Jesse gagged. You shoved a paper bag into his hands and he immediately blew air into it, steadying his breathing.

"I've been in a heli, but a plane? Noo," Jesse groaned into the brown paper bag.

"What's the difference?" you asked as you poured him a glass of water. Jesse took a deep breath before drowning the whole glass at one go.

"I can't see what's going on outside," Jesse whined like a kid. Ah, claustrophobia?

"How long more?" he asked and you raised a brow, "we literally just took off."

"Y/N, please."

"We're in Switzerland mind you. Our destination is Tokyo. That's twelve hours."

Jesse started crying.

* * *

The trip from your lodging in Ikebukuro to Hakone was absolutely hellish. The thing is you were taking a car to the place. If it was public transport you were sure your patience would have gone through the roof.

But Jesse was more than happy to take a road trip than sit in another plane. You watched him gaze at the scenery through the rectangular car windows.

"You never been here, I take it?" you started. Jesse nodded absentmindedly, "never been anywhere else besides Deadlock territory."

"Did they...did they treat you kindly?" you took a risk. You hoped that he would open up, especially after all that you two had fooled around in those months.

Jesse's eyes darkened, and you started to regret your words. Your fear kept you silent as he spoke. "They didn't care how old ya were, if ya were told to do this and that, ya had to."

"First kill when I was twelve, still a lil boy then. Gun felt heavier than a brick. But it was a clean kill, bullseye, in between the eyes."

"They saw talent in me and gave me this lil guy," Jesse stroked his Peacekeeper, "had him ever since. Never failed me even once."

"But back to ya question. Since I was a good shot, they treated me better than the rest. Didn't have to...sell ourselves."

"One time, I watched one of the older ones throw a kid into a concrete wall. Burst his head, dead immediately."

You swallowed, trying to imagine how it'd be like if you were in his shoes.

"There was this...this one time," Jesse quietened down, "they held a death match."

You held your breath.

"They put all the kids below fifteen into a stadium. Only one could escape. Ya had to kill the rest."

"Lasted four days. No food, no water, only weapons."

"You lived," you whispered, taking Jesse's hand into yours, rubbing circles.

"I did," Jesse remarked coldly.

* * *

Mount Fuji was obstructed by the clouds, much to yours and Jesse's disappointment. But the sulfur mountain known as Owakudani was smack right in front of you, yellow powder sticking all over its surface.

There were _a lot_ of tourists, both local and international. Your head started to hurt with the difficulty of finding your targets.

Jesse on the other hand, was still staring intensely at the cloud-covered Fuji, wishing for it to appear. You chuckled, and placed a hand on his shoulder, "let's go."

He was growing taller, much taller than you.

The both of you struggled against the cold of the strong winds as you made your way into one of the first buildings, where the huge gift shop occupied.

You pointed discreetly to the stairs that led down to the toilets. Gabriel had mentioned something about the targets hiding underground.

"Find it and wipe the place," he had said.

Timing was perfect, no one was around, probably all up and about outside eating the signature sulfur-boiled eggs and praying for the clouds to reveal Fuji.

"How?" Jesse asked. You shrugged. Gabriel didn't really give you any further instructions besides going down to this level. No floor plan, no layout, no map.

"Sit and wait?" you offered. Jesse shrugged.

The both of you hid under the stairs in the dark, squeezing together uncomfortably while waiting for someone from Talon to open a secret door.

You counted about 30 people so far, climbing down to use the toilets and then right back up to the outdoors and the gift shop. Their shoes pounding incessantly on the metal steps was going to be ingrained in your head for awhile.

Bad thing was that you couldn't even speak to Jesse to pass time. But you did teach him a game that only required hands. Wow that sounded wrong.

Chopsticks, it was called. Both sides held out a finger on each hand to represent the number one. If you tapped Jesse's hand, the count will go up to two and he had to stick out two fingers, and so on. Naturally, the limit was five. First player to lose both hands well, loses. The thing was, if you already lost a hand and have 2 fingers up on the other, you could 'split', meaning a finger up on each hand like how you started out. The game could go on forever if you didn't strategise.

You hated this game to be honest, you never won a single round when playing with your friends from childhood. But playing against a freshie like Jesse gave you a higher chance of winning.

The two of you were either frowning or trying to stop cackling at each other through the many rounds.

You ended up winning 10-2.

It was right after the 12th game that someone dressed discreetly in Talon's colours shut the entrance to the stairs leading down to the level you two were on.

The man dragged the shutters across the floor, the sound hurting your ears, before taking his sweet time climbing down the steps himself.

You watched intensely as he stopped in front of the wall, mumbling something. Password?

"Talon is awesome," the man casually said and your jaw dropped to the ground. Was that it?

The wall didn't budge and the man chuckled, "always wanted to try that."

You didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Jesse continued to stare.

"All living shall fear the dead."

The wall rumbled and shifted backwards, opening up a doorway and the man slipped through into the darkness.

You were about to leave your cramped hiding spot when Jesse grabbed you by the wrist. You glanced at him and got worried, because his face was paling.

"Deadlock," he choked out, "that was Deadlock."

"What?" you whispered, "what do you mean  _Deadlock_?"

"The older ones always said that line. This is Deadlock we're dealing with," Jesse growled, jaw tightening.

"They're collaborating..." you concluded. Jesse slipped out from under the stairs, facing the same wall from before. You followed behind him.

You watched Jesse stare in silence at the wall, and he seemed to be battling his demons in his head. You touched his arm, "I can go in alone."

Jesse turned to glare weakly at you, " _no_."

Woah, okay.

Jesse quickly mumbled the line to the wall and it opened like before. The inside was dark, the hall barely lit. Jesse took the lead, pulling you inside.

The both of you hugged the wall, listening to footsteps of an incoming enemy. When Jesse peeked round the corner, you reached for your trusty pistol in case.

You watched his face contort into confusion and then rage. Your heart stilled for a moment, you'd never seen Jesse being angry before.

His chest was heaving, eyes wide and nostrils flaring. You swallowed, concluding that you should never mess with a man's anger. Also, never piss Gabriel off.

"Jesse?" you said quietly.

"Take a look at these fuckers..." he mumbled, shifting positions with you.

You were slightly fearful of what you would see. And shit, yea you were right.

The place was like a medical lab, with all sorts of equipment lying scattered about the floor. Scalpels, uh, other scalpel-like things, and there was one that looked like a stapler mashed with a pen. If Angela was here to hear you describe the equipment, she would have vomited blood by now.

But the main highlight was the body obscured by the typical green curtain on a medical table. It was a sight to be honest, there was a web of wires surrounding that one table, and you'd guess that they were all hooked up to that body on the table.

You bet Gabriel didn't know about this.

"We need to go closer," you said, trying to assess the area some more.

"Why? Throw a grenade in there and be done with it."

"Doesn't this mean something important?" you pointed at the medical table.

"It won't be once we destroy it," Jesse frowned at you.

"I have a feeling it's something really big, we need to check it out," you ordered before crouching and moving in. You threw Jesse a hand signal to cover you as you slowly made your way to the table.

You gingerly hopped over the mess of medical instruments on the floor, trying not to alert anyone, including the dude on the medical table. When you reached the middle of the room, you caught sight of another metal door to your right. Probably where that Talon guy went. Definitely not safe to venture further.

You moved forward, turning back around to find Jesse stepping into the lab as well, not far behind you.

An arm's length away from the table. You gripped the edges of the green curtain, slowly pulling it to the side. This was like a horror movie in the making.

You had to swallow your gasp when the curtain revealed the patient.

A man, black hair with a hairstyle like Jack's, rather thick eyebrows and just looking pretty hot, was lying on the table unconscious.

But there were so  _many_ wires and tubes plugged into the gaping holes of his body. The horrifying thing was that he looked half-dead at the same time. His skin had unhealthy hues of yellow and grey and holy crap, was he rotting at the same time?

You searched for some sort of clipboard that held all the medical info about this half-dead dude, also another excuse to look away from the mess of flesh and wire.

You found a tattered blue one near him, and your eyes caught the bright red word 'SUCCESS'.

Success? What success? Success in doing what?

You held up the board to Jesse and pointed aggressively to the word. Jesse frowned some more.

You turned your attention back to the patient's details.

_Name: Desmont Ree_

_Age: 35_

_Consent: None_

_COD: shot to the stomach, excessive blood loss_

_Outcome: SUCCESS, 55% progress_

_Code: Black Ghost_

What on earth was this? You skimmed through the rest, more pertaining to Desmont's medical background and other irrelevant nonsense. What was Talon and Deadlock doing to him?

You reached over to place the clipboard back in its original position, but your foot caught one of the transparent tubes. In your haste to maintain balance, you yanked at it with your foot, making it literally pop right off from Desmont's body.

Your froze, and in the corner of your eye, you saw Jesse freeze too. There was a sizzling sound as the tube dropped to the ground and the hole on Desmont's body closed up on its own. Regeneration?

You slowly backed away, cold sweat beginning to form on your back and arms.

You jumped when his eyes shot open, and when the metal door to your right rattled furiously. Fuck.

Your legs began to move, and your hands were stuffed in the pockets of your winter jacket looking for grenades. Time to go, time to go blow this place up.

You let out a rather loud yell when black smoke started to billow onto the tiled floor, the source being...Desmont.

The urgency of getting out of the lab practically evaporated when you watched Desmont's fingers literally disintegrate into black wisps. He was sitting up on the table now, seemingly dazed and disoriented. His lower half crumbling more and more into smoke.

_Black Ghost._

Jesse pulled you out of your shocked daze, grabbing you by the arm and stuffing his own hand into your pocket to get a grenade. The metal door opened then. 

You didn't hear the Talon and Deadlock men yelling at you and Jesse as you both rushed out of the lab. Jesse had let go of your arm, simultaneously pulled out three pins and whammed the grenades back into the room.

You and Jesse ran.

There was terrified yelling in the room for a moment, before the grenades blew, the explosion rocking the ground. You hoped Owakudani wouldn't collapse.

You pushed feebly at the wall before Jesse gently pushed you aside, mumbling the line again.

The wall creaked open, and you breathed in the fresher air.

* * *

"I want individual reports from the both of you, especially you," Gabriel pointed to you, "you saw the most of that...thing."

You felt offended on behalf of Desmont. He was still a human being before he was forcibly turned into an undead creature. But you said nothing and only nodded.

"I suggest checkups as well," Gabriel continued and the both of you groaned.

You and Jesse decided to do the reports together, and you were about to park yourself on his bed when he spoke, "please don't sit on my bed. You're dirty."

"Excuse me?" you scoffed, laughing. Jesse threw a smile back and you nodded, settling down on the floor instead with your laptop.

You knew this was the first time he had a room to call his own, and a bed to sleep on. You'd respect his wishes.

The both of you stayed silent, working on the reports. Occassionally, he'd ask you about the format, still a little new to this whole formal report nonsense.

"What do you think they were experimenting about?" you broke the silence, chewing on the top of the pen you held in your hand.

"That guy was dead. They were trying to bring him back."

"Resurrection?"

Jesse paused. "All living shall fear the dead," he recited, "I get it...but I don't."

You smacked Jesse on the thigh, earning a yelp and a glare from him. "Any bigshot bosses of Deadlock dead?" you asked. Jesse seemed to understand your question but he shook his head. "Maybe Talon?" he offered. You shrugged. You didn't know much about Talon.

"I just hope...that whatever we blew up on Owakudani was the last of it," you said softly.

Weeks later came the reports of a black shadow, of wisps and omens, ghosting unscathed through battlefields. 

**Author's Note:**

> Are you fricking confused?? Are you wondering what even is this ghosty shit when Gabriel is still in Overwatch?? Did Desmont's ghosty form catch your attention because that was where I played around with this particular Reaper theory!! Read some dude's post which believed in the idea that there were more 'Reapers' than we actually thought and could be the result of Talon's experimental procedures which was later than applied on Gabriel himself. Nothing is canon, so if this irritates you it's okay. Pretend you didn't read anything.
> 
> Also, I wanted to make Jesse's story not as easy as it looked. Poor kid got sucked into a violent and vicious gang only to then get sucked into Overwatch with no way out except death. I wanted to portray Jesse in a way that he has seen a lot of shit and bad shit that is, and is defining who he is, or was, until someone comes along to show him a better view. I think we all need to look beyond the appearance of Jesse, yea sure he looks hot and fuckable alright, but let us acknowledge that behind the image that he puts forth now, is a dark and horrible past. Not only for Jesse, but for other characters as well. There's always more. I hoped I could deliver that 'more'.
> 
> May be a little hard to notice but I drew inspiration from Rwanda for the concrete wall thing and stadium death match. My history teacher told us about it once and it struck me hard because it's absolutely horrible. Brought it up so maybe we can all be reminded about humanity's horrors.


End file.
